Health experience of workers in the petroleum manufacturing and distribution industry: A review of the literature

A review of 120 papers on the health effects on workers in the petroleum manufacturing and distribution industry revealed inconsistent results. A full report citing all these references was produced for CONCAWE (the oil companies' European organization for environmental and health protection) in March 1986. This paper summarizes the main findings and updates the review to February 1987. This may be due in part to the variable quality of the epidemiological studies. There is, however, the consistent finding of a deficit for “all causes mortality” and for “all cancers mortality,” thus implying that a widespread serious health effect of gasoline exposure seems remote. For specific health effects, the possibility exists that occupational etiological factors may play a part in the pathogenesis of brain cancer and renal disease. The evidence for a link between occupational and other health effects is weak. Further work of better quality is necessary to investigate those diseases in which there remains a suspicion of an occupational etiology.